WE ARE STARVED – ALLEGED LOOTERS

MBABANE – “We are being starved at the police stations where we are being kept.”

This was one of the submissions made by alleged looters who are currently detained in various police stations around the country. It is alleged that the number of the suspected looters who are currently detained is in excess of 200. “There is no food to feed all the inmates who are now kept at the police stations.  We are starved at the police stations where we are kept and there are no applicable international conventions for the minimum treatment of prisoners at the police stations since a police station is not a prison institution,” contended the alleged looters. According to the accused persons, they were purportedly informed that the police service had no budget or staff to provide food for prisoners.

Bail

These allegations are contained in the application filed by their lawyer Thulani Maseko on Friday, where they are jointly seeking an order to be admitted to bail by the High Court. The alleged looters decided to approach the High Court after they were reportedly not given an opportunity to apply for bail or enter any plea when they appeared at the different magistrates courts. Instead, the magistrates are said to have only remanded them in custody. The applicants also want the court to direct all judicial officers, before whom the alleged looters were produced to be interdicted from remanding them in custody without any charge. They are further praying for an order to interdict all judicial officers before whom they were produced from postponing bail applications or denying them the right to plead to the charge. Applicants in the matter are Wakhile Mndzebele, Nkosinathi Dlamini, Sandile Dlamini, Mukelo Dlamini and various other detainees.

In their application, the applicants further told the court that even the holding cells where they were being kept were already full, in particular those in Manzini and Matsapha, where most of the arrests took place. “At the Matsapha Police Station on July 2, 2021, when our lawyers went to see some of us, they were told by the police officers that all the holding cells were full. The only holding cell which was available was one where a person of unsound mind was kept in isolation,” submitted the accused persons. It was further their contention that the overcrowding in the holding cells was a breeding ground for COVID-19. This, according to them, was not only a threat to the Kingdom of Eswatini, but also to the rest of the world since this was a pandemic that was globally widespread. Giving background of the events leading to their arrests, one of the alleged looters, Mukelo Dlamini, narrated to the court that there was currently a constitutional and political crisis in the country.
He informed the court that there was a call for certain reforms in the set-up of the country.

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